Glasgow Warriors coach Gregor Townsend believes home advantage will give his
side a critical edge in their quest to secure a RaboDirect PRO12 play-off
slot against Ospreys at Scotstoun on Friday evening.

Final hurrah: Graeme Morrison is known to be out of contract with Glasgow at the end of this season and the rumour mill suggests he will be moving onPhoto: PA

A win against the Welsh side will secure Glasgow’s place in the top four of the PRO12 table. The Warriors would have achieved that had they beaten Scarlets in Llanelli last week, but Townsend’s side came badly unstuck, putting in an uncharacteristically lame display as they went down 29-6.

In light of other results recently, Townsend could look at the Scarlets defeat as an aberration, but he did not mince his words as he itemised his side’s shortcomings.

“We just missed the jump,” said the Glasgow coach. “We were on the back foot in defence, we didn’t take the initiative in attack and we were all just waiting for somebody or something to spark us into life.

“We’ve got to take the initiative ourselves, repeat what we’ve been doing this season and understand why it has brought us success. We’ll lose games throughout the year, every team does, but what you always want to see is the performance, where people are putting their bodies on the line, taking the initiative and being tough to beat.”

Townsend suggested that the added pressure of having to win to maintain their own chances of a play-off place had boosted the Scarlets last week. Ospreys, lying fourth in the table, are in much the same position as they head to Glasgow, but Townsend reckoned that the Scotstoun factor would be a huge influence on proceedings.

“It’s our last home game of the regular season,” he said. “We’ll have a bigger stand [erected for next month’s IRB sevens event] and a bigger crowd and we’ve responded well to crowd support in recent games against Munster, Ulster and Northampton. Likewise, when the players have performed the crowds have reacted to their performances.”

Graeme Morrison, the 35-times-cappped centre appears likely to start Friday’s match, but it could well be his last appearance on home soil as well. Morrison is known to be out of contract at the end of this season and the rumour mill suggests he will be moving on.

“We'd like to show Graeme respect for what he's done and what he continues to do,” Townsend said. “He's been a great ambassador for the club and been a great player for the club.

“He's trained really well and he deserves his chance of starting. I like to think the players would have an extra bit of motivation playing for someone who means a lot to them and to the club.”